Image: ‘Hide ‘n’ Seek’ by Rob and Stephanie Levy, creative commons license attribution 2.0 generic

Walking with the Dead: Discovering and Re-imagining Stories from

Townsville’s Past

West End Cemetery, 33 Francis Street, West End, Townsville

Aims

This teaching resource offers a hands-on ways to use creative writing, research, imagination and empathy to engage students with the local history present in the West End Cemetery, and to think about how the past lives on in the present.

The walking tour, and associated writing exercises and discussion, focuses on voices that are often marginalised or silenced in the historical record because of class, culture, or gender.

Hearing and writing these stories invites students to think about the gaps and silences in the historical record, as well as ways the past is constructed, and the implications of such representations. Participants are also invited to consider the emotional significance of the past.

Teachers may freely use and adapt this resource to their own classes.

Note for guides:

At the beginning of the tour introduce self, make sure everyone is comfortable, has hat, water and notetaking equipment.

References are included in the footnotes, but they do not need to be read out.

Feel free to re-word the text to suit your own style.

Ask participants to take a jot down notes about the writing exercises while on the tour, but direct them to the shade and trees to complete the exercises. Refer participants to the checklist at the end of this booklet, which reminds them what they should collect while on the tour.

Then, invite the participants to come back and share their reflections on the writing exercises. Make sure participants are seated comfortably and in the shade for discussions.

With thanks to Townsville City Council, Ariella Van Luyn, Shelley Greer, Jane Ryder, and Todd Barty.

1

West End Cemetery, Google satelite

2

Tour

Site one: Main entrance to cemetery Middle of West End park

We are standing on the traditional lands of the Wulgurukaba and Bindal People, the first people to have lived in this region. 1 

This cemetery was Townsville’s General Cemetery from around 1868 to 1902, with burial records dating from 1873. 2 It’s an example of a Victorian cemetery and features much of the symbolism favored during the late nineteenth century. 3 It is estimated around 7900 to 8000 people are buried here. 4 However, only 2210 are marked by a monument grave; some bodies are buried together in family plots, some marked only by a small marker in the ground, and others are unmarked. 5

Question for group: What kind of information about Townsville’s past can be found in the cemetery?

(Answers might include: knowledge about people who contributed to Townsville’s history; historical events such as disasters, outbreaks of illness; population demographics like occupations, age of death, cause of death and death rates, immigration rates, marriages; rituals of grief and burial; personal stories)

1 Townsville City Council. (2017). ‘Traditional Landowners.’ https://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/about-townsville/history-and-heritage/townsville-history/traditional-landowners 2 Townsville City Council. (n.d.) ‘Cemeteries.’ https://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/facilities-and-recreation/cemeteries 3 Townsville City Council Heritage Unit. (n.d.) West End Cemetery Heritage Trail. https://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/5991/WE-Cemetery-Trail-1.pdf

4 Fielding, Trisha (2013). ‘West End Cemetery: Religious Trends in Townsville.’ https://northqueenslandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/west-end-cemetery-religious-trends-in.html 5 Stanger, Ross, and Roe, David (2007). ‘Geophysical surveys at the West End cemetery, Townsville: an application of three techniques.’ Australian Archaeology, 65. pp. 44-50.

3

Like many cemeteries, this cemetery has a boundary fence said to serve two purposes: protecting the dead from disturbance, and isolating the dead from the living.

In Australia and New Zealand, cemeteries are usually organised by religious denomination, beginning with the religious orientations of the early settlers to an area. As migrant flows change, so too do the different sections of the cemetery increase, and religious denominations change. 6 At the West End cemetery, Roman Catholic, Church of England and Presbyterian make up a large proportion of sites.7

The symbols on some of the gravestones reveal the ways society at the time made sense of death. As you examine the graves, and begin to write creatively about them, consider the way these symbols also represent powerful emotions, and how you might explore these emotions in your writing.

“A Broken Column means a life cut short.

Dove and Twig represents Noah’s dove, which symbolizes faith in the renewal of the world.

Ivy symbolizes fidelity and eternal life.

An Hour Glass symbolises the passing of time.

An anchor means faith.

A shell means fertility.

I.H.S. is ‘Jesus’ in Greek.

A lamb stands for innocence.

A shamrock signals a person of Irish origin.

A rose signals a person of English origin.

Clasped hands stand for farewell and reunion.

A compass and square motif symbolises lodge/union membership.”8

Sometimes, people were resourceful in the decoration of graves. For example, some graves are surrounded by cast iron balustrading that was also used as a building material. 9 It seems as though many of the graves in the cemetery used to be painted black, or another color.10

6 Kirkman, (2015). p. 4647 Fielding (2013). 8 Townsville City Council, Cemetery Trail.9 Ibid. 10 Ibid. See for example, the grave of James McDowall.

4

Writing exercise one

As you walk around during the tour, take a note of the symbols on the graves. Sketch, describe or take a photo of any that strike you. While you’re looking around, you may also recognise names on the graves. Maybe you even have relatives here. If you do, record the grave and any stories you may know about them, or any other stories about the cemetery you may like to share.

When you return from the tour and take some writing time, choose one of the symbols to focus on.

If you don’t know its significance, imagine what it might mean and jot down a few notes.

5

Now, imagine you are a character that has some connection to the gravestone (a relative or friend perhaps) and describe the symbol from their point of view. Describe the texture, appearance, colour, the way the light falls on it, and perhaps some of the detail around it. Try to reveal how the character is feeling without stating it explicitly.

6

Questions for reflection and discussion from exercise one

What were some of the connotations of the image you chose? What meanings does the symbol suggest? How might your culture and society shape how you interpret this image?

Looking at the gravestones, how do you think the symbolism helps people and cultures make sense of death and grief during particular eras?

Did you notice any vandalism or decay on the graves? What might this suggest about changing attitudes to death, or about collective forgetting?

Did pretending to be a character change the way you responded to the symbol? If so, in what ways? What might this suggest for fiction’s potential to represent emotions and experiences from the past?

What techniques did you use to reveal emotion without stating it explicitly?

Were there any graves that belonged to someone whose name you recognised? Perhaps you would like to share any stories you know about the graves. What kind of information about what Townsville was like in the past do these stories reveal? How did encountering the grave make you feel?

7

Site two: Foley family grave

Walk through the entrance to the first grave under the tree on the right hand side

Thomas Foley was a Member of the Legislative Assembly, unionist, and an Alderman for the Townsville City Council. He died in 1920. In the early 1890s, Foley campaigned for his daughter Mary, a state scholarship winner, to attend Townsville grammar school. Mary Foley became the first girl to attend the school, making it a co-educational grammar school from 1893. 11

11 Townsville City Council, Cemetery Trail.

8

Writing exercise two

Write one paragraph about Mary Foley’s first day at the Townsville grammar school.

Now, write one paragraph from the point of view of one of the boys at the school on the day of Mary’s arrival.

Draw on your own experiences at school to help you with the details, actions and feelings in the scene.

9

Questions for reflection and discussion from exercise two

What does the story of Mary Foley reveal about Townsville in the 1890s?

What were the differences in the two points of view? Was there one point of view you were able to imagine better? Why? Did writing from the more difficult point of view make you think about the issue differently? If so, in what ways?

When you wrote in the two different points of view, did different attitudes to gender and education come through? What were they? Where do you think these ideas come from?

Do you think it is ok to allow your own experiences to inform how you write the past? Or are you imposing your own consciousness on a time period and on people completely different from you and your time? How might historians and writers of fiction have different ideas about what are acceptable ways of writing about the past?

10

Site three: Grave mound thought to belong to orphan children

Walk towards Castle Hill until you reach the pair of trees and turn right. Walk to the low mound and empty space opposite John Philp monument

The cemetery contains evidence of how people living in Townsville may have died, including those in vulnerable positions whose families could not provide grave markers, as well as those wealthy enough to afford large monuments.

Underneath this mound is thought to be a mass grave, perhaps belonging to orphan children, although little is known about who they are or how they died. We do know that the first orphanage in Townsville was opened in 1879 in North Ward; before then, orphan children were sent to Brisbane and Rockhampton.12

Although we don’t know how the children died, other graves can give us clues about common causes of death amongst young people. Disease was a constant presence in the early years of Townsville’s settlement, particularly as a result of unsanitary living conditions. Other graves in this cemetery reveal causes of death:

Graves such as that of Selina Porter (1869-1884) show children died of diseases like typhoid, a bacterial disease spread by contaminated food.

Hannah Sarah Pengelly, also buried here, was a matron in charge of Townsville North State School (now Belgian Gardens State School), during the 1919 influenza epidemic, which occurred after World War Two, spread via the shipping routes. In Townsville, the first

12 Gibson-Wilde, Dorothy. 1984. Gateway to a Golden Land: Townsville to 1884. Townsville: James Cook University.

11

reported cases where from the ship SS Wodonga. Although only 18 people died from the virus, it was believed 25% of the population contracted the disease. To avoid contamination, strict rules were imposed: public gatherings were banned, the streets disinfected and information leaflets handed out. Isolation hospitals were established in the schools to accommodate the influx of patients. Hannah Pengelly would have helped set up tents in the school groups, and oversaw local scouts who would mark “SOS” above the windows of houses whose residents had the disease. 13

Janet Hay Burgess arrived in Townsville in 1883 with her husband and children aboard the ship the Eastern Monarch. Measles broke out on the vessel and it was quarantined at Cleveland Bay when it arrived in Townsville. Two of her children died during this quarantine and were buried on Magnetic Island. 14

Viola Busmuth Noble, was enrolled in Ross Island State School in 1912, and died in 1922, age 16, of kidney disease.

As those buried in the grave may all have died around the same time, it’s possibly they were killed by a contagious disease. Ian Townsend’s novel Affection (2005) tells the story of when the plague came to Townsville.

13 Townsville City Council Heritage Unit. (n.d.) West End Cemetery Heritage Trail: In Loving Memory of Townsville’s Women. (brochure)14 Ibid

12

Writing exercise three

While walking on the tour, gather any other evidence for the ways that young people may have died from when there were was an orphanage in TownsvilleWrite a one-paragraph factual report about the grave mound.

Imagination can often be a way of filling in the gaps of the past. Write one paragraph describing how one of the orphan children may have died, drawing on evidence in the cemetery about ways young people died.

13

Questions for reflection and discussion from exercise three

What power structures might shape whose story is recorded for prosperity and whose isn’t? How might this shape our version of the past?

How might power structures have an effect on the way that children died?

How do the conventions of the two genres—fiction and nonfiction—shape the kind of stories that can be told?

What are some of the difficulties and rewards of using imagination to fill in gaps in the past?

How did you go about incorporating factual information into your fiction? Are there any blurred boundaries between the two? Do you think it’s ok to make inferences like you do here in fiction? Why or why not?

In writing exercise two, you wrote from one point of view and then another. Maybe you used first person (I, me, we). In this exercise, you may have instead written in third person (he, she, them). What is the effect of taking of a more distanced point of view on the way you represent character? What is the effect for you as a writer? What might be the effect on the reader?

14

Site four: Block E

Cross the cemetery to the gully, and walk across the walkway. Stand under the tree in the middle of the space.

In the past when the cemetery was surveyed, it was divided into blocks, organised by religious denomination.

Image: Figure 2 from Ross Stanger and David Roe (2007)

15

Block E, on the other side of the gully, was called a ‘Chinese cemetery’ in early records.

Image: Figure 3 from Ross Stanger and David Roe (2007) 

However, a 2004 geophysical survey showed that 65 individuals were buried in this block from a diverse range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, including Chinese, Japanese and South Sea Islanders. 15 Until 2005, when the Townsville City Council erected markers for these graves, the burials here were unmarked and the area was not as well maintained as areas on the other side of the gully.16 No one knows for certain why these people were buried on the other side of the gully, but it seems to be because of a mixture of race, religion, and cause of death. 17 The exception is the grave of Tomijiro Kawai, who was a Japanese cadet who died while his ship Hiei was in Townsville in 1900. The Japanese Navy has a tradition of returning to erect graves.

15 Stanger, Ross, and Roe, David (2007), p. 4416 Ibid, p.46. This does not include the graves to the edge of the clearing, and the Jewish grave monuments. 17 Ibid, p.49.

16

Writing exercise four

Imagine that you are one of the people buried in Block E just before they are about to die. Write one paragraph describing where you are, what you are doing, and how you are feeling.

17

Questions for reflection and discussion from exercise four

How does the placement of graves reveal attitudes to people of different religions and cultures? How has the physical qualities of the land been used as boundaries between people? What might this reveal about attitudes?

What are some of the difficulties and complexities of representing people from different cultures? What are some things you might do to work through these difficulties?

18

Site five: Annie ‘Bags’ Ferdinand

Stand in an empty space underneath trees on the edge of the cemetery

The cemetery is also haunted by absences. We often hear myths and stories about local history, like the many stories of tunnels that run underneath Townsville. One figure that lingers on the edges of the cemetery without a grave is that of Annie Ferdinand, or Annie ‘Bags’, as she was known to many in Townsville and North Queensland in the late 1890s and early 1900s.18 Born in Germany, Annie was an itinerate woman, who was said to have come to Australia in the 1880s in search of her lost lover on the goldfields. 19 Annie was often seen walking between Townsville and Charters Towers—a distance of 137 kilometers—barefoot and accompanied by a pack of dogs and cats. We know that Annie died in a Townsville hospital, where she admitted in an emaciated condition in April 1910, but the site of her grave is unknown. 20

Image: Annie Ferdinand from Picture Queensland, State Library of Queensland

18 Death of "Annie Bags." (1910, April 20). Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 - 1954), p. 4. Retrieved April 20, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39371885

19 https://www.i-q.net.au/our-mining-heritage/annie-seeks-lost-love-on-the-goldfields . See also "Annie Bags: The Lady in Rags" by Laurence Joseph Murphy.

20 ANNIE BAGS." (1910, May 1). Truth (Brisbane, Qld. : 1900 - 1954), p. 12. Retrieved April 20, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201752956

19

Image: “Annie Bags was German born Annie Ferdinand, who died in North Queensland in 1910.” Image sourced from Picture Queensland, State Library of Queensland

Writing exercise five

Imagine you are driving on the highway between Townsville and Charters Towers, and you see the figure of Annie Bags. Maybe you have travelled back in time, or maybe you are seeing a ghost. Describe what you see and how you feel. In your description, try to give some clues about how Annie came to be walking here.

20

Questions for reflection and discussion from exercise five

What are some of the problems of representing real people? What would you need to think about if you were going to make the story you’ve written about Annie public?

What might be the impact on Annie of making her life and personal details public, both and the time, and if the story were to be told in contemporary times?

How do you think myth and local legend shape the way we see the past? Why do you think we are drawn to figures like Annie?

Did you choose to use the supernatural in your description of Annie? Why do you think we like to hear and tell ghost stories?

Whose stories might be absent from the cemetery? Why do you think there are these silences?

Homework

During the tour, record (photograph, draw or describe) one grave you’d like to research further and write about. Page 22 includes a list of places you can access online to help your research.

21

Further resources

Gibson-Wilde, Dorothy. (1984). Gateway to a Golden Land: Townsville to 1884. James Cook University History Department.

Griffin, Helga. (2014). Frontier Town: A History of Early Townsville and Hinterland. Queensland Preservation Society.

National Library of Australia databases, including digitised newspapers: http://trove.nla.gov.au/

North Queensland History blog: https://northqueenslandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/west-end-cemetery-pioneers-thankful.htm

Picture Queensland: http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/picture-queensland

Picture Townsville: https://townsville.spydus.com/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/PIC/BSEARCH

Queensland Heritage Register, West End Cemetery: https://environment.ehp.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=601475

Townsville City Council Heritage Unit. (n.d.) West End Cemetery Heritage Trail. https://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/5991/WE-Cemetery-Trail-1.pdf

Townsville City Council. (n.d.). Burial Details—West End Cemetery. https://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/8391/West-End-Cemetery-Records.pdf

Townsville History Online Catalogue: https://townsville.spydus.com/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/PIC/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/THO/BSEARCH

State Library of Queensland: http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/

22

Things to collect on the tour

Notes about any stories you know about the cemetery or the people buried here

Drawings, pictures or descriptions of symbols you see on the graves that strike you

Drawings, pictures or descriptions of graves with names you recognise (if any)

Evidence of the ways that people died around the era of Townsville’s first orphanage (1870s-1900s)

Drawing, picture or description of one gravestone you’d like to research further.

23